AIRCO D.H. 5 Fighter Trainer

During WWI Geoffrey De Havilland was designing some novel, and effective aircraft for Airco. The D.H. 5 Scout almost made it into this class. In 1917 it was his latest design featuring backstaggered wings to give the pilot better forward and upward visibility. It was an excellent idea, unfortunately, it did not have sufficient power to provide good performance at altitude. Some considered it to be an adequate ground attack aircraft, but the British did not want to put more resources into such a specialized aircraft. Originally designed as a fighter, those built were relegated to the advanced fighter trainer role. About 550 were built.

This small photo of an Australian DH5 gives a better idea of the wing arrangement.

Technical Details
The D.H.5 was a single seat fighter that first flew in combat in 1917. It was powered by a 110 hp (80 kW) Le Rhone 9 cylinder rotary engine. This unit provided only 100 mph (160 km/H), with a ceiling of 17,000 ft (4900 m) and a flying time of 2 hours and 45 minutes. Also, it was rather under-armed for 1917, with a single Vickers 0.303 machine gun on the cowl.

Canadian Aces Home Page

Images From:
DH5 at top of page courtesy Ro§bud's WWI Aviation Image Archive. Original source unknown.
Photo of the Australian DH5 courtesy the Australian War Memorial, negative number H12729/7.

Information From:
E. Gustin. Military Aircraft Database.
Michael Sharpe. Biplanes, triplanes and seaplanes. Prospero Books, 2000.